How to write papers, part 1 principles

How to Write Research PapersPart 1 – General PrinciplesXiao QinDepartment of Computer Science and Software EngineeringAuburn Universityhttp://www.eng.auburn.edu/~xqinxqin@auburn.eduThese slides are adapted from notes by Simon Peyton Jones (Microsoft Research, Cambridge)1

Where is Auburn University?Ph.D.’04, U. of Nebraska-Lincoln04-07, New Mexico Tech07-now, Auburn University

Writing Papers is a SkillMany papers are badly writtenGood writing is a skill you can learnIt’s a skill that is worth learning:You will get more brownie points (more papers accepted etc)Your ideas will have more impactsYou will have better ideasIncreasing importance

Writing Papers: Model 1IdeaDo researchWrite paperWhen I was a doctoral student 7years ago, this is my model of writing papers.

Writing Papers: Model 2IdeaDo researchWrite paperIdeaWrite paperDo researchForces to be clear, focusedCrystallises what we don’t understandOpens the way to dialogue with others: reality check, critique, and collaboration

Do not be IntimidatedFallacy You need to have a fantastic idea before you can write a paper. (Everyone else seems to.)Write a paper, and give a talk, about any idea, no matter how weedy and insignificant it may seem to you6

Do not be intimidatedWrite a paper, and give a talk, about any idea, no matter how insignificant it may seem to youWriting a paper is how you develop an idea in the first place

It usually turns out to be more interesting and challenging that it seemed at first7

The Purpose of Your PapersXiao QinDepartment of Computer Science and Software EngineeringAuburn Universityhttp://www.eng.auburn.edu/~xqinxqin@auburn.edu8

Why bother?Good papers and talks are a fundamental part of research excellenceFallacywe write papers and give talks mainly to impress others, gain recognition, and get promoted9

Papers Communicate IdeasYour goal: to infect the mind of your reader with your idea, like a virusPapers are far more durable than programs (think Mozart)The greatest ideas are (literally) worthless if you keep them to yourself

IdeaA re-usable insight, useful to the readerThe IdeaFigure out what your idea isMake certain that the reader is in no doubt what the idea is. Be 100% explicit:“The main idea of this paper is....”“In this section we present the main contributions of the paper.”Many papers contain good ideas, but do not distil what they are.

One PingYour paper should have just one “ping”: one clear, sharp ideaRead your paper again: can you hear the “ping”?You may not know exactly what the ping is when you start writing; but you must know when you finishIf you have lots of ideas, write lots of papersThanks to Joe Touch for “one ping”

The purpose of your paper is not...To describe the WizWoz systemYour reader does not have a WizWoz

Readers are primarily interested in re-usable brain-stuff, not executable artefacts14

Your Narrative FlowI wish I knew how to solve that!Here is a problemIt’s an interesting problemIt’s an unsolved problemHere is my ideaMy idea works (details, data)Here’s how my idea compares to other people’s approachesI see how that works. Ingenious!

Structure (Conference Paper)Title (1000 readers)Abstract (4 sentences, 100 readers)Introduction (1 page, 100 readers)The problem (1 page, 10 readers)My idea (2 pages, 10 readers)The details (5 pages, 3 readers)Related work (1-2 pages, 10 readers)Conclusions and further work (0.5 pages)

The AbstractI usually write the abstract lastUsed by program committee members to decide which papers to readFour sentences [Kent Beck]State the problemSay why it’s an interesting problemSay what your solution achievesSay what follows from your solution

ExampleMany papers are badly written and hard to understandThis is a pity, because their good ideas may go unappreciatedFollowing simple guidelines can dramatically improve the quality of your papersYour work will be used more, and the feedback you get from others will in turn improve your research

StructureAbstract (4 sentences)Introduction (1 page)The problem (1 page)My idea (2 pages)The details (5 pages)Related work (1-2 pages)Conclusions and further work (0.5 pages)

The introduction (1 page)Describe the problemState your contributions...and that is allONE PAGE!

Describe the ProblemUse an example to introduce the problem

State Your ContributionsWrite the list of contributions firstThe list of contributions drives the entire paper: the paper substantiates the claims you have madeReader thinks “gosh, if they can really deliver this, that’s be exciting; I’d better read on”

State Your ContributionsBulleted list of contributionsDo not leave the reader to guess what your contributions are!

Bulleted List and Forward References

StructureAbstract (4 sentences)Introduction (1 page)Related workThe problem (1 page)My idea (2 pages)The details (5 pages)Related work (1-2 pages)Conclusions and further work (0.5 pages)

Contributions should be refutable26

No “rest of this paper is...”Not:Instead, use forward references from the narrative in the introduction. The introduction (including the contributions) should survey the whole paper, and therefore forward reference every important part.“The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the problem. Section 3 ... Finally, Section 8 concludes”.

No related work yet!Related workYour readerYour ideaEnergy efficient prefetching was explored by Papathanasiou and Scott [20]. Their techniques relied on changing prefetching and caching strategies within the Linux kernel. PB-LRU is another energy efficient cache management strategy [32]. This strategy focused on providing more opportunities for underlying disk power strategies to save energy. Flash drives have also been proposed for use as buffers for disk systems [4].

No related work yetI feel stupidProblem 1: the reader knows nothing about the problem yet; so your (carefully trimmed) description of various technical tradeoffs is absolutely incomprehensible Problem 2: describing alternative approaches gets between the reader and your ideaI feel tired

For readers who know your field very well...Abstract (4 sentences)Introduction (1 page)Related work (1-2 pages)The problem (1 page)My idea (2 pages)The details (5 pages)Related workConclusions and further work (0.5 pages)

Related work first!Related WorkIs your idea novel?What are your contribution?Your readerYour ideaEnergy efficient prefetching was explored by Papathanasiou and Scott [20]. Their techniques relied on changing prefetching and caching strategies within the Linux kernel. PB-LRU is another energy efficient cache management strategy [32]. This strategy focused on providing more opportunities for underlying disk power strategies to save energy. Flash drives have also been proposed for use as buffers for disk systems [4].

Where should you put the related work?Abstract (4 sentences)Introduction (1 page)Put related work here?The problem (1 page)My idea (2 pages)The details (5 pages)Put related work here?Conclusions and further work

Where should you put the related work?A Suggested PrincipleAbstract (4 sentences)Introduction (1 page)Put related work here?The problem (1 page)My idea (2 pages)The details (5 pages)Put related work here?Conclusions and further work You want to convince reviewers in the first place.You feel this is a novel idea

Presenting the idea3. The ideaConsider a bifircuated semi-lattice D, over a hyper-modulated signature S. Suppose pi is an element of D. Then we know for every such pi there is an epi-modulus j, such that pj < pi.Sounds impressive...but

In a paper you MUST provide the details, but FIRST convey the ideaPresenting the ideaExplain it as if you were speaking to someone using a whiteboardConveying the intuition is primary, not secondaryOnce your reader has the intuition, she can follow the details (but not vice versa)Even if she skips the details, she still takes away something valuable

Putting the reader firstDo not recapitulate your personal journey of discovery. This route may be soaked with your blood, but that is not interesting to the reader.Instead, choose the most direct route to the idea.

The payload of your paperIntroduce the problem, and your idea, usingEXAMPLESand only then present the general case

Using examplesExample right away

The details: evidence Your introduction makes claimsThe body of the paper provides evidence to support each claimCheck each claim in the introduction, identify the evidence, and forward-reference it from the claimEvidence can be: analysis and comparison, theorems, measurements, case studies

Related workFallacy To make my work look good, I have to make other people’s work look bad

The truth: credit is not like moneyGiving credit to others does not diminish the credit you get from your paperWarmly acknowledge people who have helped you

Be generous to the competition. “In his inspiring paper [Foo98] Foogle shows.... We develop his foundation in the following ways...”

Acknowledge weaknesses in your approachCredit is not like moneyFailing to give credit to others can kill your paperIf you imply claim that an idea is yours, and the referee knows it is not, then eitherYou don’t know that it’s an old idea (bad)

You do know, but are pretending it’s yours (very bad)If reviewers pointed out that your idea is not novel, what can you do?

Conclusions and further workBe brief.

Future WorkFallacy (1) Do not let others compete against me using my future work ideas. (2) Point out future directions that seems to be a dead-end. (3) A future work I believe I can complete sooner than the others.

Future Work (cont.)Refer to the weakness of my workEncourage other researchers to continue working on your project Issues that you plan to address

Software ToolsLatexMikTexTexMakerFigures: MatlabDiagram: Matlab, visio, google docs

SummaryIf you remember nothing else:Identify your key ideaMake your contributions explicitUse examplesDownload the slides fromA good starting point: “Advice on Research and Writing”http://www.slideshare.net/xqin74/how-to-write-papers-part-1-principleshttp://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/how-to.html

How to write papers, part 1 principles

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to How to write papers, part 1 principles (20)

More from Xiao Qin (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

How to write papers, part 1 principles